What temperature will a Flow frame endure

In the course of beekeeping it is sometimes necessary to extract honey by warming it a bit first. For instance with Heather honey. What temperature can you warm the frames to without damaging them. I know what temperature honey can be warmed to without denatureing it…but can the frames withstand higher temperatures?..without distortion or damage?

Here is the faq here - http://www.honeyflow.com/faqs/flow-frame-sterilisation-irradiation-disease-control/p/145

Heat treatment: Flow frames can handle hot water up to 70˚c

Chemical treatment: The plastics chosen have good chemical resistance. We will be testing various chemicals to evaluate this soon.

Irradiation: We have tested the Flow frame parts with multiple doses of 15kgy Gamma rays. We load tested the irradiated parts and tested them to destruction. The results were: 1 dose had little effect. 2 doses had minimal effect. 3 doses and the plastic was significantly more brittle. We will be testing further to see if this causes any failures but at this stage we can say the Flow frames can handle being sterilised with 15kgy gamma twice.

Here are 2 faq’s you might find interesting - http://www.honeyflow.com/search/?s=manuka

FYI you can do a search with any keyword in the top left hand corner of our website - and it will show you a bunch of faq’s on different things.

Hope that helps :slight_smile:

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Thanks @Faroe - I’m Sure I saw boiling mentioned somewhere?

That’s great …thanks

If you have to heat the frame to extract the honey, what is the point of having a flow frame?

Cheers
Rob.

Some honey, like oil seed rape (OSR or Canola) crystallizes in a week or two, even before it is capped. You could heat the flow frame (gently) and still use the flow mechanism to extract it. The only way to get useable honey out of the Flow frame would be heating, so the question is valid and useful. :wink:

If you are in a canola area then having the flow frames just complicates the process. I can sort of see the point if your honey is naturally runny but if not the taking the frames out to heat and drain is more complex than just nornal frames and not the point of having a flow hive.

Cheers
Rob.

The reference to boiling is for sterilization of the frames if for some reason they need sterilizing. If you have honey that crystallizes very easily or very quickly most people have recommended taking the Flow frames off during these seasons. Crystallized honey in the cells seems like it would be a messy complication no matter what method you use.

Canola honey is a PITA to put it politely.

Cheers
Rob.

Ah…the point of the question was in reference to disease such in a case of EFB or AFB. How the Flow frames can be cleaned is very important. Here in the UK…ATM…if you get a case of AFB…all the frames are burnt and anything which can be cleaned has to withstand the chemicals or heat used to kill the virus/bacteria.
Although researchers are looking at different ways to manage these diseases as ‘kill and burn’ have not been successful in controlling outbreaks. Research has shown that these infections can be present in low levels within a colony without it affecting the colony…with it only becoming a threat when the colony is weak or stressed.
In regard to OSR honey or any other honeys which don’t run…well it is up to the beekeeper to decide whether to use the Flow frames in those circumstances.
OSR honey doesn’t crystallise so quickly that it can’t be drained off. Ensuring that there are enough bees in the colony to keep the super warm and that the honey is drained in a timely fashion should avoid a situation where the honey crystallises in the frame.